Politics Plus

Yesterday, Joyce Vance wrote a prequel column to her normal “The Week Ahead” column which comes out today. It’s called, “How does the First Day of a New Congress Work?,” and she wrote it in order to get the normal stuff out of the way so she can pay more attention to the abnormal stuff she, and everyone else, is expecting. Even professional analysts are overwhelmed by the happenings of last week. Actually, it’s quite possible that te more one knows, the more overwhelmed one is. Heather Cox Richardson quoted some from Jeffries’s speech, including the entire A-to-Z section, which I re-quote here because it is so comprehensive:

“American values over autocracy, benevolence over bigotry, the Constitution over the cult, democracy over demagogues, economic opportunity over extremism, freedom over fascism, governing over gaslighting, hopefulness over hatred, inclusion over isolation, justice over judicial overreach, knowledge over kangaroo courts, liberty over limitation, maturity over Mar-a-Lago, normalcy over negativity, opportunity over obstruction, people over politics, quality of life issues over QAnon, reason over racism, substance over slander, triumph over tyranny, understanding over ugliness, voting rights over voter suppression, working families over the well-connected, xenial over xenophobia, ‘yes, we can’ over ‘you can’t do it,’ and zealous representation over zero-sum confrontation. We will always do the right thing by the American people.”

Also there was a Trump**-style coup attempt in Brazil.  And Brazil may not be the last country to play copycat (thoughwhy it’s called copycat, I can’t imagine – cats are not known for being followers, of anyone or anything.)This is a deeloping story and you shouldn’t have any trouble finding developments.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Southern Poverty Law Center – Rosewood Remembered
Quote – For almost 60 years the massacre, which left at least six murdered while the rest, including dozens of children, escaped in the middle of the night, running through swamps, hiding in the woods and leaping onto train cars, was all but erased from historical memory. No law enforcement agency investigated, and no one was ever charged with crimes. The erasure mirrored that of racial violence across the U.S., where lynchings and mob attacks in Chicago, Tulsa, Omaha, and in small towns and large cities across the country were, and in many cases continue to be, left unremarked and unremembered save by communities of survivors.
Click through for article. It does frost me that white Floridians (and Georgias, and Oklahomans, and Illinoisians, and Nebraskans, and white people alll over our country were are are so hell-bent on covering up our real history. The cover-up really is worse than the crome. Obviously they don’t get that.

The Daily Beast – New Congresswoman Fights Rival Over Witchcraft Accusation
Quote – Rep. Anna Paulina Luna came to Congress on her first day in office ready to do battle—not just with Democrats, but also with her own party, as she became one of the 20 Republicans to vote against electing Kevin McCarthy speaker. But back home in her conservative Florida district, Luna is waging a very different kind of war: a legal fight with political enemies who say she is a literal witch. A letter obtained by The Daily Beast reveals that the Florida Republican retained the high-powered law firm Holland & Knight to go after a would-be rival who leveled a series of outlandish allegations against Luna on the Bubba the Love Sponge radio show in the fall.
Click through for details. The legal action itself proves she is not a witch. Casting a spell would be easier and cheaper than going to court – if sh could do so . So, she can’t. (And I have to say the title “Bubba the Love SPonge” doubtless tells you everything you need to know about the intellectual level of the program.)

Food For Thought